Saturday, 9 January 2016

Like its predecessor Windows 8.1, the latest Windows 10 also ships with Windows Defender program. Windows Defender is designed to help protect your PC from viruses, malware, and other threats. While it might not offer all the features available in third-party antivirus software like Avast Free for Windows 10, it’s adequate for many home users.

That said, you might want to better protect your Windows 10 PC using a better third-party antivirus software. Since installing two or more antivirus on the same PC is not recommended, it’s a good idea to disable Microsoft’s Windows Defender before installing third-party antivirus software. Although it’s true that most antivirus software will automatically disable Windows Defender during the installation, some antivirus programs ask the user to manually turn off or disable Windows Defender in Windows 10.

In previous Windows version, turning off or disabling Windows Defender was easy. There was an option under Windows Defender Settings to turn on or off the defender. In Windows 10, Microsoft has moved Windows Defender settings to the Settings app.

Completely disable Windows Defender in Windows 10

While there is an option to turn off real-time protection of Windows Defender, there is no option to completely turn off Windows Defender. If Windows 10 finds that real-time protection is turned off for a while, real-time protection will be turned on automatically.

In order to disable Windows Defender permanently in Windows 10, we need to manually disable Windows Defender service and stop the same from starting automatically. As most users don’t prefer manually changing default settings of services, here is a tiny tool designed to enable you completely turn off or disable Windows Defender in Windows 10.

Use NoDefender to disable Windows Defender permanently in Windows 10

NoDefender is a free tool designed to disable Windows Defender permanently in Windows 10. In order to turn off, Windows Defender in Windows 10 using NoDefender, you need to complete the directions given below.

Step 3: On Step 1 page, click the button labelled Open Windows Defender Settings to open the native Settings app with Defender settings.

Step 4: Here, turn off the following three options:

# Real-time protection

# Cloud-based protection

# Sample submission

Step 5: Now, go to the next Step in NoDefender utility to see Disable Windows Defender button.

Click Disable Windows Defender button to disable Windows Defender permanently in Windows 10. Once Windows Defender is disabled, you’ll see the Next button. Click Next and then exit NoDefender.

Step 6: When you try to open Windows Defender, you’ll now get “This app has been turned off and isn’t monitoring your computer.” message.

NOTE: The NoDefender utility doesn’t include an option to enable Windows Defender again. So we suggest you create a manual system restore point before disabling Defender if you want to easily enable Windows Defender again in future.